Why should legally married people get an advantageous tax filing status? discriminatoryAgainst menWhoDontWant2settle

Bad Wigins wrote:

No You are not wrong wrote:

What childish nonsense. It shouldn't matter which of the four people have what income. The simple fact remains that four people making $100k in total are taxed more if they are a family of four than if they are four single people.

Lame. Your motive is obvious, Mr/Ms "simple facts." And you're wrong - rich people paying higher taxes doesn't justify tax breaks for married people.

Lame. Your claim of knowledge is beyond pathetic. In addition, you are fundamentally wrong, not only with your posts on this thread, but to the very core of your being.

I agree. No tax breaks for marriage, mortgage interest, charitable contributions,... Let people make rational economic decisions.

Because people who "DON'T WANT TO SETTLE DOWN " have a much higher social cost !!

DUHHHHHHHH

Worth adding to this thread that the benefits and inequalities in the tax code were the basis of the United States v. Windsor, which struck down many of the state defense of marriage acts vs same-sex marriages. The couple in question was high net worth and incurred the estate tax when one spouse died. Had the state and the State recognized their union like any other committed adult relationship the surviving spouse would owe no tax until both spouses passed. The Supreme Court ruled in their favor, effectively turned over most of these laws, and the IRS refunded several hundred thousand dollars in overpaid tax plus interest.

I wouldn't be surprised if we gradually make the effective tax rates the same for joint and single filers (raise them a bit for joint filers and lower them a lot for single filers). The rates for single filers are punitive, especially in the 50k through 100k range of incomes.

Charlies Sollers wrote:

I agree. No tax breaks for marriage, mortgage interest, charitable contributions,... Let people make rational economic decisions.

Healthcare, retirement and college savings. Not going to happen though. Middle class welfare is just too popular.

I'm a CPA tax specialist and in almost every situation couples filing jointly will be better off from a tax standpoint than had they filed separately. This benefit increases as the disparity between the income of the spouses increases. In the old days there used to be a "marriage penalty" in some circumstances but this has all but disappeared.

That being said if you are married and file separately you will generally be worse off than had you filed single.

I agree with original poster the married filing jointly tax filing status is bogus. In most countries (i.e. Canada) there is not joint filing. Everyone should just file based on their income. The tax code should not be a way to incentivize what the government sees as things beneficial to society.

I respectfully disagree with this poster's last sentence. That's exactly what a tax code should do: incentivize certain behavior that is in a society's collective interest. It's far less coercive than other ways of getting people to conduct themselves in ways that benefit a society. For example, if a taxpayer doesn't want to contribute to charaties, that's fine, but by giving a tax deduction for charitable contributions, the government encourages people to make such contributions that work to our collective benefit.

To the OP, I am single, and I am in the bracket that one earlier poster said is most penalized by not being married. I don't know whether that's true, but really, there are few things more pathetic than listening to people like you complain about your taxes. You live in a great country. Be happy and pay your taxes.

Finally, to the gentleman -- and that's a generous usage in this instance-- who said people who are single should pay more because we are "losers," I'll remind you that every married person was once a single person, yourself included. Your anger and bitterness is sad.

Don't steal! The government hates competition.

Repeal the 13th and 16th amendment!!!

Marriage is unconstitutional!